Right on the frontpage of NS.com is a video podcast discussing concept design for the Kharaa and Marines and their respective architecture/style and the like. This is a pretty cool idea and interesting, to an extent, but where was this crap three or four years ago when I ate, slept, breathed, and crapped Natural Selection? It just seems like too little too late, for me. I know their site got hacked and all that but it seems like all of this stuff is akin to putting a bandaid on a severed leg.

I'd love to get back into NS and of course I'm going to play NS2 until my hands fall off but the difference between NS and, say TF2, is that I can enjoy TF2 on my own. A great team and friends is a definite plus and brings the gameplay to a much higher level but it's not necessary. Having a good-to-great game of NS requires a team that can communicate and people who know what they are doing in a game that's far more complex than Team Fortress. As fun as munching on Marines is on my own, it's hard to get into when there's not a great team behind you. That's why I pretty well hate Combat - all munch, no brains. And yes, there are still good NS servers, they're just not abundant. Anyway...I guess this thread isn't quite about the video podcast so let's change it: what do you guys think about the state of NS?

I have a theory that the more a game COMPLETELY sucks when you get tards, the better/deeper game it is. Or to put it more simply, the more dependent you are on your teammates, the deeper/better the game is. Classic examples would be NS and DoTA, both are pretty much unplayable if you have crappy teams.

TF2 hits an interesting sweet spot. I mean, i can go stabby stabby to my hearts delight (until they get a paranoid pyro) and pretty much ignore my team having 6 engies and 2 snipers (Well, technically a normal gamer should. BUt i get flusterated when the team is working and we aren't achieving our goals.).

Now onto NS. They will, IMHO, ALWAYS be a niche game, no matter how much Flayra and the team tries to make it noob friendly, the core is a terribly complex game dependent on teamwork and communication. It will never get the same following as TF2 or CS or any other game that a normal gamer can pick up and play. I'll never be able to say to my coworkers (who play DoD, CS, TF2), hey, let's play some NS. They found even combat really confusing.

That being said, the niche audience they are aiming at the the hard hard core gamer set (the same set that I think plays DoTA, tbh) is not small. I think NS2 will do pretty well. There are enough rabid fans, and rabid fans in stasis who WILL buy the game when it comes out. If it comes out.

But here is the thing, there is the hard hard core gamer set, then the ULTRA hard hard core gamer set. These are the folks who thought Fortress Forever, with all of it's air control craziness, was a good idea and would GROW. If the NS team caters to them (which I doubt), NS2 might die pretty quick.

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. Terry Pratchett

I check in once in a while, mostly to see if anything is happening on the mapping front, I don't know why, habit I guess. I scan for any new info (podcasts, etc) scan the discussion so I get the gist of it (instead of listening to 20 minutes of "uhh...")

I guess I was sort of disappointed by that video podcast too. I was hoping for some new info's, rather than a recap of year before ns was released.

NS definately is hurting. Florp dragged me away from TF2 the other night to play some NS. The whining and smacktardishness just made me think (out loud) "is this cs or what?"

I have faith that NS2 will be a fantastic game. I don't expect the same game with shiny graphics, but hopefully it will still have some depth to it. If they feel the need to keep combat, well, I hope they flesh it out a bit more (RT's = cap points?!) or something. But now I'm heading off on a tangent with much rambling.

NS is dead. For the terminally addicted such as myself, I've resorted to playing in the Euro league with 170 ping for any semblance of organized play. The alternative is either 50 level-xmenu-sporemine-gorgehook-lerklift combat, or 30 slot servers where each team has perhaps two people who know how to play and everybody else just running about randomly. Somehow people have been able to get pugs going in the last few days, but I don't think it'll last too long. I hope Flayra doesn't screw up NS2.

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. Terry Pratchett